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Devlin DeFrancesco’s golden retriever Lucky was killed when it was run over in the motorhome lot on the Saturday evening of the race weekend.
Legendary team owner Ganassi took to X (formerly Twitter) in the days following to race to express his sorrow to DeFrancesco, and committed himself to making “a generous donation” to an Indianapolis animal shelter.
“The accident the other night with Devlin DeFrancesco’s dog was so unfortunate,” he began in his post.
“I not only feel terrible about it I also feel terrible for Devlin, Katie and the DeFrancesco kids.
“On behalf of their dog Lucky and the DeFrancesco family I am making a generous donation to the Indianapolis Humane Society.”
The accident the other night with Devlin DeFrancesco’s dog was so unfortunate. I not only feel terrible about it I also feel terrible for Devlin, Katie and the DeFrancesco kids. On behalf of their dog Lucky and the DeFrancesco family I am making a generous donation to the…
— Chip Ganassi (@GanassiChip) January 30, 2024
DeFrancesco graciously accepted the gesture, writing on X in response, “I want to personally thank @GanassiChip for his apology to myself, my parents, my siblings and [partner] Katie.
“Nothing will be able to bring Lucky back or make the pain go away but I would also like to say thank you to Chip for his donation to the Humane Society of Indianapolis.
“In support of other dogs/puppies in a city that is so important to me. Where I spend a lot of my time doing what I love with great people.”
Rest in peace Lucky you’ll always have a special place in my
Heart ❤️ pic.twitter.com/YHPAwmNCaH— Devlin Defrancesco (@DevlinDeFran) January 27, 2024
The tragedy was not the only remarkable incident from the weekend, with IMSA admitting to an officiating error which meant the race ended shy of 24 hours due to the chequered flag being shown early.
“Due to an officiating error in race control, IMSA inadvertently announced and subsequently displayed the white flag with under three minutes remaining in the race,” read a statement from the championship.
“At the end of the lap, the race-leading No. 7 GTP car then received the checkered flag with 1 minute, 35.277 seconds still remaining, ending the race short of the planned 24 hours by effectively one lap.
“Based on Article 49 of the 2024 IMSA Sporting Regulations and Standard Supplementary Regulations, should the checkered flag be inadvertently or otherwise displayed before the leading car completes the scheduled number of laps or before the prescribed time has been completed, the race is nevertheless deemed ended when the flag is displayed.”
Officially, the race-winning time was thus 23:58:24.723s, with the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry prevailing by 2.112s over the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac after the 791 laps which did count towards the outcome.
The Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac, which started on the front row, retired with a mechanical problem having already dropped off the lead lap due to a tyre failure and subsequent pit lane speeding penalty.
A team statement advised, “The No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R experienced a mechanical powertrain issue in the second half of the grueling race that resulted in retirement of the entry.
“Cadillac Racing will investigate to find the root cause and prepare for the 72nd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.”
The Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 which DeFrancesco drove finished 16th in the GT Daytona class.
